bangersandmash

I’m a couple of chapters into Christine Bruce’s Informed Learning and I already feel the need to talk about it. The focus on information seeking and use being a disciplinary act is wonderful. This quote pretty much sums up what makes this book so wonderful:

We need to emphasize both discipline and information-use outcomes in our learning design and implementation; discipline mastery is achieved through the processes of creative and reflective information use. Once we recognize what information is and how we are using it, we can be more in charge of the information environment and how we encounter, source, control, engage with, and use information. We cannot assume that learners are aware of these processes or that they are able to implement them. The learning experience that prepares today’s students for tomorrow’s professional practice brings such practices into the curriculum and encourages reflection upon them … The idea of informed learning comes from recognizing that information use and learning are close companions; in formal learning environments, discipline content and effective information use need to be learned together as interrelated phenomena. (p. 3-4)

I’ve been struggling to articulate what she communicates with such ease. I’m going to reserve further comment until I’m finished the book but I wanted to get something up here as it looks like much of my work over the coming year is going to focus on the relationship between discipline, information seeking, writing and information literacy. It is exciting to know that the little nagging idea that has been rolling around the back of my head has some basis in reality.